Japanese Curry Recipe from scratch

This curry is a very popular dish in Japan. The curry will vary depending on which region of Japan you are in. This Japanese curry recipe is a bit thicker than the Indian curry and it mostly contains vegetables and beef/pork compared to the Indian curry that usually has chicken.

 

The good news is that the recipe of the Japanese curry contains ingredients that are easy to get around the world unlike recipes like the Okonomiyaki recipe. In this recipe, we shall use chicken thighs but you can use chicken breast, beef, lamb, or pork for this recipe.

 

This Japanese curry recipe is done from scratch meaning that we shall be making all the ingredients on our own. It’s better than using store-bought roux cubes whose ingredients are questionable. 

 

Whenever you cook something from scratch, you can know exactly what you put in the food, and you are also able to control the flavors that you put. 

Ingredients of the Japanese curry recipe

• 50grams of butter
• ¼ cup all purposes flour
• 2 tablespoons each of curry powder of your choice, garam masala, and sunflower oil.
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1 chopped small onion 
• 500 grams of chicken thighs
• ¼ cup dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons of white vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
• ¾ cup apple juice
• 1 ½ cups chicken stock
• 1 chopped big carrot
• 2 chopped Irish potatoes

 

Steps to follow when making Japanese curry

The Roux

We shall start our recipe by making the roux.

Melt 50 grams of unsalted butter in a pot and add in ¼ cup all purposes flour while the pot is still on medium heat.

Mix until the flour is combined with the butter for 1 minute.

Add 2 tablespoons of curry powder of your choice and 2 tablespoons of garam masala. However, if you have access to a Japanese curry powder, please use that one because it contains more flavors for the curry. Mix these spices to combine with the butter-flour mixture. 

 

Keep the roux aside to be used later.

The curry

Preheat a large frying pan and add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil like sunflower oil, 3 minced garlic cloves, and 1 chopped small onion. Add 2 pinches of salt to the frying pan and stir for 1 minute.

Add the roux to the frying pan and combine it with the rest of the ingredients.

Cut the chicken pieces into smaller pieces and add the chicken pieces to the frying pan to mix with the spices. Cook for 1 minute.

 

Pour in ¼ cup dark soy sauce, 1 tablespoon honey, 2 teaspoons of white vinegar, ¾ cup apple juice, and 1 ½ cups chicken stock into the frying pan with the chicken. You can use vegetable stock if you are vegan or vegetarian instead of using chicken stock. 

You can experiment with different juice in this step and see what works for you.

 

Chop 1 big carrot 2-inch sized piece and do the same for the 2 potatoes. If you don’t like the idea of fat carrot pieces in your curry, you can grate the carrot and put it in the frying pan. The grated carrot adds some nice thickness to the curry. 

Cover the frying pan with a lid and cook for about 46 minutes until the potatoes and carrots have become soft.

At this stage, you can add spices like chili powder and salt according to your liking. 

Garnish

You can garnish the Japanese curry with chopped scallions or green onions.

You can now serve your beautiful Japanese curry with white rice and pickled ginger. 

We shall call the end result ‘Japanese curry rice’. 

If you have enjoyed making this Japanese curry rice recipe please take some photos of your Japanese curry, send them to us and we shall post them on our blog.

If you have really enjoyed this Japanese curry recipe, be sure to check out the Okonomiyaki recipe too.